I wonder if this means that your account is enabled to book an appointment and once appointments are available they will show up on the website and you can book? Most people cannot book an appointment because they havenāt been invited.
You might ask someone who has not been invited to compare their screenshot of the appointment tab to see if there is any difference. I think they key thing is if you are able to select a branch office under the SEF drop down menu. If so, then that would be a good sign.
This process of appointments is so new, there is just not that much knowledge about how it works in particular.
I assume that it is just a ready reply and no one has checked my particular case.
Anyway, I can NOT select a branch office under SEF drop down menu for past months. I recently checked it myself rather than my lawyer who has access to the SEF ARI portal and supposed to book an appointment for me.
Reza.
I donāt know what to tell you. There are several other people in your same position. I suggest you group together and collectively put demands on your attorneys to fix the problem. hopefully they can find solution. And maybe there is more power in numbers. Unfortunately, I hate to say but it seems like you are lost in the bureaucracy. It seems straight out of The Trial by Franz Kafka. Maybe you could write your own story about thisā¦
Some promising update from IAServices posted earlier today:
"ā¦we have attended different meetings with the Government representatives and shared our views both regarding the impact of this disruption on our investors processes and to the countryās economy as well as presenting possible solutions to mitigate and help to resolve existing challenges. Our message has been focused on two major points: i) the reopening of the ARI platform, where the process is submitted and ii) the need to resume appointments for the collection of biometrics both regarding the initial submission of new processes and the renewal of existing ones.
According to the feedback received, our requests were registered, and we received indications that actions will take place shortly, given the importance of the Program to the country.
Concluding, the ARI program is still up and running following its last redrafting, as approved in February 2021. Furthermore, we expect to have good news to provide to our investors very shortly, since we already started seeing a positive change on the actions coming from SEF, namely the increasing number of pre-approvals and approvals received. "
Hey letās work together so that we just have one form. I think itās important to gather date that residency card was received. Here was the form I created for reference Portugal Golden Visa Timeline Database
Oh yes, your form has the same data - let us just use the one you created. I thought you were focussed more on creating data for the SEF lobbying. I will delete my postā¦
Would be good to list the biometrics appointment locations in a dropdown like in my form to make sure the data there is clean - at least that is the data point I was most focussed on with my form to find the most effective biometrics location.
This is great (although the results are depressing)ā¦
Once more responses roll in it would be helpful to see monthly or quarterly cohort statistics to more easily see whether the situation is improving or deteriorating over time.
thanks for sharing. I recently emailed SEF through gricrp.cc@sef.pt. they responded promptly, though they suggested me to call the contact center. is this a positive signal? I heard before that SEF did not respond to emails. Anybody with experiences calling SEF recently? If we try to schedule an appointment through call, what documents do we need to have in our hands? or we have to ask the lawyers to do it?
@loheiman - thanks for putting together this data! It helps frame the emails and anecdotal stories we all share. There was the window of time last year when several people were able to grab last minute biometrics appointment openings that helped speed their timeline (which is now closed). With Brexit, COVID, strikes, restructing/funding, more COVID and the Ukraine, its clear the line is what it is. Thanks again.
Thank you very much for your effort. It is a great way to see the results. The results are very upsetting - i have to admit. It is highly likely that things wonāt be improved. People keep being positive and think that government will have solution to clear the backlog. However this kind of slow process with GV has been there since 2015-2016 and nothing improved since then. Being realistic I would say: 10 years is the total times from application submitted to citizenship completion. Forget about the 5 years from the advert of lawyers
I hate to say but the actual results/delays are much worse than what is presented here. The sample set is not large enough to be relevant so while this data is instructive, it is not definitive or even that helpful. For example, there is only one person who submitted results of getting cards after biometrics and they reported 69 days. I can assure you that is not a typical result by any stretch.
Well, how do we know that until the survey populates some more? The sample size is not large.
Of course if the sample size never gets that large then itās not so helpful.
And no doubt any number of people who have their cards have simply moved on from the board and thus arenāt around to contribute, or otherwise simply donāt care any more.
